Kabojja International School counters covid-19 with ICT-aided learning

Jan 25, 2021

“Online teaching is evidently expensive and actually, we dedicated a big budget to it."

Kabojja International School counters covid-19 with ICT-aided learning

Mathias Mazinga
Journalist @New Vision

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 Kabojja International School has maintained its niche of academic excellence, even in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Classes have continued. Students are advancing to higher sections.

So, how has the school managed to operate in the prevalence of the pandemic?

Sam Turya, the Director of the school shares how they have managed despite the current situation.

“Surely Covid-19 affected us. You know we had to close when government ordered the closure of schools in March, 2020. We follow the British Curriculum. So, by the time the schools were closed, we were about a week to the end of second term and a month to the beginning of exams for the candidate classes. Cambridge suspended exams and consequently, had to get an alternative way of assessment. The evidence-based assessment took into account the work we would do at home and the work we do at school.

“But because of our world-class infrastructure, we knew we had the capacity to keep operating even in this era of Covid-19. So, we engaged government. We explained how we could continue teaching under strict observance of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS). Our arrangement satisfied the officials from the ministry of education and the ministry of health, who consequently gave us the green light to start operating for candidate classes under SOP’s”

Sam Turya

Sam Turya

How they used IT to counter the pandemic

“We had hoped the schools would be opened soon, latest May, but this never came to be. So, we decided to strengthen our online teaching strategy. We started engaging our stakeholders; I mean the teachers, parents, etc, through online-based interactions. We oriented our teachers to do online teaching. We provided the parents with the internet to facilitate online teaching. We started with the teaching and assessment of the candidate classes. The students would submit their work online and we would submit it to Cambridge. In this way, the academic year for candidate classes ended well and the results were back in July.

“Online teaching is evidently expensive and actually, we dedicated a big budget to it. But of course we did not start from scratch. We already had internet, Zoom and Google platforms, and other ICT facilities. The environment of our school also facilitated E-Learning. What we basically did, was to provide zero-rated internet, whereby the school entered a memorandum of understanding with the internet providers.  The school pays the internet providers and the parents pay for only the gadgets.

“When we completed the academic year, in July, we again engaged the government, to allow us to operate during our new academic year that would start in August. We presented to government the effective strategic measures that we had put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We placed sanitizers and leg-operated hand-washing machines all over the schools. By the way, we also fixed scanners, which scan the entire body, at our entry points.

We have continuously encouraged testing for our teaching and support staff members for the virus. We also worked out an agreement with all our stake-holders, to observe the SOPs. For example, we all agreed that nobody will be allowed into our campus without wearing a face-mask. This was actually an expensive venture, but of course education is never cheap.

A Teacher Wearing Masks Attending To Students

A Teacher Wearing Masks Attending To Students

“Our preventive measures, which thrived on our spacious premises, and facilities, satisfied the inspectors from the ministry of health and the ministry of education and consequently, government allowed us to open the school. You know we had whatever was required; smart boards, facilitated teaching, spacious cafeterias, spacious rooms, etc. I can rightly say, Kabojja International School took the upper-hand in lobbying government to open the international schools. So, that is how we managed to be operational even in the prevalence of the pandemic. We just took a break in December and came back on January 5, 2021 and broke off for elections.

“Operating in strict observance of the SOPs is not an easy venture. We had to equip the school with sanitizing equipment and other gadgets, such as temperature-guns, sprayers, leg-operated hand-washing machines at every point of entry. We also had to boost our Electronic library. We also entered a memorandum of understanding with Makerere University Hospital and IHK. 

In case any learner or staff shows even the slightest symptom, they are tested immediately and also in case of any positive result which has not happened, the one who tests positive is then treated by the professional doctors. We have a good number of isolation rooms at the school where those suspected to be showing any sickness can be temporally isolated and later transferred for further testing.”

Kabojja International School Super-equipped for Covid-19

After such a massive investment in hygiene facilities and online teaching and learning, Kabojja International School is now in an even stronger position.

The school is ably moving on with its teaching/learning programmes, even with the prevalence of the global pandemic.

Students Wash There Hands Before Entering School Premises

Students Wash There Hands Before Entering School Premises

“We acknowledged the reality of Covid-19 and the devastation it causes. So, we put in place strategic interventions to prevail over it. We instituted effective SOPs at the school. We also trained our workers, through workshops, on how to live with the pandemic.

We have counselors on site. You know the pandemic has even affected our people mentally and hence the necessity of counseling services. We have the awareness that the people are paramount. So, we put in place a communication strategy, which enables us to listen to every client.

For example, we have some parents whose jobs or businesses collapsed because of the pandemic. Such parents are currently finding it hard to pay their children’s tuition. So, we put in place a communication strategy to attend to them. We have a planned schedule through which we listen to everybody.

“We have thus now structured our school fees. Our teachers have also been trained to live under the new normal. All our stakeholders; the teachers, the parents, the students and the support staff have been sensitized and effectively equipped to orient themselves to lead a new life-style that takes into account the challenges of Covid-19.

“By the way, with or without Covid-19, E-learning has taken over. It has become an integral part of our education system. So, we would not have any other choice but to adopt the respective modern methods of teaching. We shall thus not cease to continue learning online.

E-learning should be an integrated part of education. Yes, the teaching methodology has changed.  The system of assessment has been adjusted. Everyone must have a laptop. Contact with people is lessening as online teaching becomes more enjoyable.

Kabojja International School as a Unique Institution

The strategic programme of Kabojja International School that has enabled it to continue operating perfectly during the pandemic has turned it into a stronger brand than ever as Turya continues to explain.

“Kabojja International School has always been one of the strong educational brands. It is a unique school because of its unique values and ethos. It is among the pioneer international schools, which interestingly, are run on the beautiful values of African tradition, with primary emphasis on discipline. We run an international curriculum, which commences from early years, up to high school.

“We maintain small classes, not exceeding 15 learners. We put emphasis on discipline, learner’s appearance, ICT aided learning. The school’s academic excellence thrives on its ICT based curriculum, facilitated by smart boards and a fast internet, trained quality staff that meet international standards, and an effective communication policy that encourages dialogue between the parents, the teachers and the learners.

“Kabojja International School treats learners as individuals. Each learner is attended to as an individual, with due consideration of their strength and weaknesses.  The school cherishes and promotes community service.

It nurtures in the students the sense of reaching out to the community. The students are encouraged to form Interact Clubs, through which they mobilise resources, for example textbooks that are not being used, and donate them to their disadvantaged brothers and sisters in the schools around the community.

By exercising solidarity with the disadvantaged, the school engages the community to be part of it. By the way it is the pandemic that has reduced our level of community engagement.

Previously, our students would visit the neighboring schools and promote literacy. Sometimes they would even donate labour. In all these, they would develop the heart for the needy. Kabojja International School’s other uniqueness, which is even more awesome, is its outstanding grades that match its facilities.”

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